Cramer: China Doesn't Play Fair

NEW YORK ( TheStreet -- Jim Cramer tells TheStreet's Debra Borchardt that he likes China, but wishes that the country's government would play fair.

Debra Borchardt:

Jim we have got to talk about China because I've got so many things on China. One, their property has inflated so much that they have had to throw water on this hot fired up market. Then I'm also seeing that they're passing the United States in their use of oil. So, it's seems so schizophrenic that one minute we're talking about how on fire China is and then the next minute we're talking about how their growth is slowing.

Jim Cramer:

Right. 60 Minutes talking about the empty buildings see-through. China is a conundrum for a number of reasons. One is that they are energy hogs, but also pollution creators. We would never let that happen in our country, where our greenhouse gases are going down, or in the continent of Europe. So they're a totally unfair player. They pollute the heck out of the world and can export with the cheap currency. We know that and we need them. We need them. So we need them to be able to buy our bonds. We need them. They are a consumption market for a lot of our companies. They are the reason why oil stays high. Okay. Because they keep importing and importing and importing...

Debra Borchardt:

They are sucking it down like no one's business.

Jim Cramer:

Right. And that's why oil is at $90 and not $80 with the dollar being strong and our glut. So in many ways they're the epicenter of everything that is going wrong in the world right now. You have to tighten because they speculated too much. They are almost as if they are off the rails. That said, they are responsible for a lot of the world's growth. You can't get Caterpillar ( CAT) over $110 if they don't do well. Cummins ( CMI) has to be over 130. Action Alerts Plusowns United Technologies ( UTX), which is a big China play. We got rid of Emerson ( EMR). We got of the iShares China ( FXI). We got rid of a lot of the oils because they are all China plays. So they are...I have very mixed emotions about them. I think the people are great. They work really hard. I think the government doesn't play fair and we're seeing a lot of things come home to roost right now. They spent too much money. They encouraged too much speculation. They should be spending all their money on trying to crack down on pollution like the rest of the world. They're unfair players to me. It's infuriating.

Debra Borchardt:

Well, where do you think their growth is going? Because we're seeing that they've declined the most in five months, their pace, and it's just very confusing. I mean, are they slowing or are they really very strong but they're pretending to be slowing? You know, that they're trying to obfuscate that they're still growing.

Jim Cramer:

Well, Debra, four million people are moving from rural to urban. Although we heard Foxconn is moving their plans to rural because there's such a mismatch. There are labor shortages throughout China in the cities. So you know that those buildings are going to be filled. They will be filled. It's just taking a little longer time. You don't need more buildings, so you'd like to see them cut back in that. But you need to see infrastructure. They have a water and sewage system that's a 100 years old. And there's much that the government should focus on that would not be as counterproductive, is what the private sector is doing, but I hold hopes that China will be rational when the new government really takes hold in March. I don't want to sell American derivative plays on China that are soft goods, like a Pepsi ( PEP), or a Proctor & Gamble ( PG), or even a GE ( GE) on hard goods. But I respect the fact that the demographic trends are very in much in China's favor in terms of rural to urban. But, boy I wish that they would play fair. They do not play fair.

Debra Borchardt:

All right, Jim. Well they certainly don't play fair and that makes it even harder for our markets to figure out what they're going to do. So keep your eye on China and especially keep your eye on what's going on in China in March.